Blockbuster.co.uk - DVD - Rent '21 Grams'

“How much does life weigh?”

View the Trailer

21 Grams is the latest film from the Academy Award nominated director of Amores Perros. Starring Academy Award Winners Sean Penn (Mystic River) and Benicio Del Toro (Traffic) as well as a stunning performance by award winning actress Naomi Watts (The Ring), 21 Grams is a story of hope, humanity, resilience and survival.

21 Grams explores the emotional relationship of three people over a period of several months as their lives fall apart after an accident unexpectedly throws their lives and destinies together. Each of the three characters chooses a path which takes them to the heights of love, the depths of revenge and the promise of redemption.

Professor Paul Rivers (Sean Penn) heart has failed and he waits on death's door for a new donor. His wife Mary (Charlotte Gainsbourg) intended to leave him but feels that she is needed now that he is sick. Paul is very near to death but Mary wants to have his child through artificial insemination. The couple find themselves precariously balanced between life and death.

Reformed ex-con, Jack Jordan (Benicio Del Toro) has found his redemption through religion. Working for his local church, Jack does his best to help the local street kids of the area to try to prevent them making the same mistakes that he made. Although he has cleaned himself up, many people still treat him like a criminal. Jack struggles to make an honest living and support his wife Melissa Leo and their two children.

Christina Peck (Naomi Watts) has left her troubled past behind and is now a beloved older sister to Claudia (Clea Duvall), a good wife to Michael (Danny Huston) as well as a loving mother to her two little girls. She has the perfect American family which is radiant and full of life.

A horrific accident claims several lives and radically affects the characters. Paul is forced to confront his own mortality; Christina takes action to come to terms with her new situation while Jack's faith is put to the test as he confronts his inner demons. The characters are forever locked together in a gripping story that takes them to the heights of passion, the depths of obsession and sees the promise of revenge.

With flawless performances by the entire cast as well as a powerful and engaging storyline, 21 Grams is a gripping and emotional rollercoaster ride through hope, despair, remorse, faith and personal transformation. Laid out like a jigsaw puzzle, with past, present and future scenes mixed together, which is a representative of the way we all remember painful events, it forces the audience to involve themselves in the story and try to figure out where everything is pieced together. This gives the film a unique rhythm and ensures that everyone is emotionally involved in the direction of the characters. 21 Grams is a great film that shouldn't be missed.

© 2004 Icon Home Entertainment. All Rights Reserved.

Benicio Del Toro first came to the public's attention aged 21, when he starred as a Bond Villain in License To Kill. Quickly establishing himself as a charismatic and talented character actor, Benicio Del Toro gained critical acclaim for his strong performances in movies including Swimming with Sharks, Fear and Loathing In Las Vegas and The Usual Suspects. Del Toro won an Academy Award for his part as the 'one good cop' in Steven Soderbergh's Traffic.

Benicio Del Toro delivers a mesmerising performance in 21 Grams as Jack Jordan, an ex-con who hopes that his new found religion can save him from the demons that have blighted his life.

The film has a complex structure, jumping backwards and forwards. When you first read the screenplay, what did you think?

“ The structure was pretty much in the screenplay. Reading it was a little difficult to find what, when and where and so I made a phone call and said 'hey can you send me one with it in chronological order?' (laughs) And they did. So then it was easier to know where you were coming from and where you were going. ”

Presumably you didn't film it in sequence?

“ To an extent we did. We shot my story first, or most of it. And then they jumped in and went to Naomi's story with Sean and then I came in at the end again. So it was kind of shot in sequence and it has to be really because otherwise you would be completely confused. ”

It's a very rewarding film, but it's also very demanding too, especially of the actors. How do you prepare for that?

“ You know, you use your imagination and you try and put yourself in some kind of situation in your head that feels similar to that on the page or you do what actors do. I don't even know what I do to get there really, and sometimes I surprise myself or disappoint myself. But it's make believe and you hope for the best. ”

The actress, Melissa Leo, who plays your wife is a very critical character...

“ Alejandro and myself did a reading in LA and Melissa showed up and right away we knew 'it's her..' we liked right away that she had this earth strength. She was very strong and we met her, read with her and it was done. ”

This character is in a pretty bad way. Do you ever take the characters home with you?

“ No I don't take it home. What I do need to take is my focus home. I can't just go off skiing for a day and come back and put it on again. I'm not that kind of actor, I've got to stay focused. There was a Christmas break on 21 Grams and then I went back and I was like 'oh, boy, I don't want to go back and have to start crying again and bang my head against the wall..' you know. There was a little bit of that element in it, but that's like any movie you do. It's like you've got to go to work, you've got to go to school, you've got to get up, vacation is over (laughs). You have to show up and take the test. ”

Do you build up a back story of your character? We never really know what his original crimes were...

“ His original crime? No, it's just a life of being in trouble with the law at different ages. I think the main thing about the character is that he is going through a depression. There's a thing that I found out about called Survivor Guilt which happens to people when they get into accidents when they lose the person right next to them and they are still alive and they go 'why me? Why do I get to live to see another sunrise and that person doesn't?' And they go into a massive depression where they can't do anything. And they even feel like taking their own lives, it can sometimes go that deep, and that's a fact. ”

It's a very thought provoking piece. The wider theme is about death and how we cope with loss. Did it make you think about these big issues?

“ I like to think that I don't take life for granted, you know, and definitely this movie says that. And I like to think there is always hope of making life better, you know things can get better. I'm an optimist in the will, I guess and a pessimist in the intellect, probably. It's high drama, high tragic drama. ”

But it's not something we see in mainstream cinema that often. Usually death is glossed over, whereas here the terrible consequences cause havoc in many lives...

“ I like movies when they deal with things like that. As I get older, I think it should be dealt with in a more mature way. When I was younger it was 'oh yeah, let's kill somebody in the movies, it's going to be fun..' Now I'm older I go 'wait a second...' There's a whole domino theory when you kill someone. So as I get older I get more conscious about it. ”

Naomi seems to be the actress of the moment. What was it like to work with her?

“ Well, I only did one or two scenes with her but I did see her at work and I thought she was wonderful. The little things I saw her do she was like a raw wire, she had an amazing capacity to conjure up this raw emotion. I worked with Juliette Lewis a while ago where I saw that too, that raw intensity. I think it's fantastic and I think she is amazing in the movie. Sean and Naomi are really good actors. Powerful. ”

What does Alejandro do to help the actors he's working with?

“ He creates a great atmosphere for actors, especially in this movie. He's great at casting - Sean and Naomi, I mean, how great are they? He got the actors that will come in and give it what he needs. And you know he got actors who have worked for a while. I mean, I've done 22, 23 movies, Sean has done, who knows? Probably twice as much. And Alejandro has only done two, so he got experienced actors that know how to get from point A to point C without a map if necessary. I think the best directors do that. But he created an atmosphere that was conducive to exploring and he listens and he was willing to explore. We shot pretty fast - we had to, it was 'you are on a schedule man and you had better not fall behind.' ”

Benicio Del Toro Filmography

Traffic

The Usual Suspects

Born in England and raised in Australia, Watts has gained widespread critical recognition for her performances in Mulholland Drive and The Ring (2002). A versatile actress, Watts has continued to amaze critics with her performances as she holds her own when starring alongside some of Hollywood's top stars. Naomi Watts has been nominated for both an Academy Award and a BAFTA for her stunning performance as a grief stricken mother in 21 Grams.

How do you conjure up that kind of emotion take after take?

“ I don't know (laughs). You'd have to ask Alejandro about that because I'd be curious about that too, I mean, but we did keep going back to it. And that was one of the great things about working with Alejandro was that we went to every level of emotion possible. And he made the choices I thought were right and I think he paced it really well. I felt like I was crying at least once a day, every day for two months (laughs). Crying, primal screaming, shouting, all that kind of stuff. Some scenes I looked at and I thought 'oh right, that was quite constrained, considering how we also shot it...' So yeah, it was exhausting and draining. But I knew that going into it, I read the script and I knew that was what I had to do. ”

When you saw 21 Grams, could you get lost in it as a film or did you get bogged down by the technicalities of your own performance?

“ I find the only way to totally be an audience member and not watch yourself and think of things that happened on that day is to see it through the audience's eyes and that's the way to get lost in it, otherwise it's just so difficult, it's just so difficult to be objective. I watched it in Venice, at the film festival, and my mother was in the audience and I absolutely saw it through her eyes and that was pretty intense. ”

What made you want to work with Alejandro?

“ Amores Perros. I agreed to do the film without reading the script. I was shooting The Ring at the time and I literally to meet him except on the set before I had to go to Paris. And I knew before I met him. I was like 'oh my God, I don't know what it will be, I don't know what he is doing, but I want to work with this guy..' I thought that Amores Perros was a perfect film and he knows better than anyone how to handle emotion and tragedy. And so when he said 'I want you to do my movie... .' I said 'sight unseen, I will do it, sign me up.' ”

But did he tell you anything about the story?

“ He told me what 21 Grams meant. And that's about it. He said 'it's you and two leading actors and lots of support cast.. .' And he said it was about hope and love, redemption, revenge, you know all of those things, but that's all he told me. ”

So you didn't know that Sean Penn and Benicio Del Toro were attached?

“ No. I didn't. He wouldn't tell me at that point. And I don't even know if Sean had agreed at that point. Actually, Sean and I knew each other vaguely and were talking about working together anyway. And I got the script six weeks later but I heard by this time that Sean had been offered it and had the script. So I called him and he said 'I'm on page six, and it's better than anything i've read in a long time..' So I was like (big intake of breath), getting so overwhelmed with excitement. And finally the script came and I felt exactly the same. I felt it was an incredible story and what a beautiful, beautiful role to play. And then all the other things, you know Benicio signing on was just a dream. ”

What's Sean like to work with?

“ The great thing about working with Sean is that he obviously has a process but you don't see it. He's there. He's incredibly powerful, his presence, he's so protective of my character. I had so much of that stuff to go through and I really felt he was guiding me and taking care of me and it was a special experience, working with him. And I had been told before that he doesn't like to rehearse and he might be unapproachable and I don't know if any of that is true but certainly not with this experience. If he doesn't like to rehearse he put Alejandro's process before his own, because we did rehearse and we did talk endlessly about things. He was there, he was warm, just great. And Benicio too. We would talk about what Alejandro wanted from a scene. We were in Memphis for about two weeks for rehearsal and Alejandro comes with a lot of preparation, a lot of research and is very disciplined about the way he works. I walked on the set for the first time and you could hear a pin drop. I'd never been on a set that quiet, but it was so conducive to working in a very positive way. And everything was about the acting, everything. The way the camera moved was to let the actors move around and not feel like they are fixed to some mark. It was all about feeling liberated and being able to move around, it was kind of like theatre. ”

What preparation did you do for the role?

“ I went to grief support groups and I went to some AA meetings. It gave me a lot more insight to something that is unimaginable. And I don't think anyone knows what that feels like until you have experienced it. And for me to get closer to that experience I had to connect with those people and listen to endless descriptive details of their journeys. And it was incredibly painful. And there was one woman in particular that had documented her journey in the months leading up to it - it was quite a different thing, it wasn't a sudden death. And then the months afterwards and she happened to be a really good writer and she emailed me, and there was maybe 400 pages. And every day I would sit on the computer reading it to the point where I would say to myself 'I can't read much more of this now.' It's absolutely heart wrenching. And it also made me realise how truthful some of the moments in the script were. ”

At the end of what must have been an emotionally draining experience, did you go away and sit on a beach and recharge your batteries?

“ (laughs) No, I went to promote a movie in Japan. Actually then I had some time off. But I knew what was called for and I knew I would be on shaky ground shooting it and for sometime afterwards. It was a good one to shake off, but the experience of making it and connecting with the people you are working with was great. Because obviously we were all very close during the filming of this movie because we needed to be to make it as honest as possible. I mean, I'm so close to Alejandro and his wife, and the crew. We were all talking about it the whole time, the 'what ifs?' and the 'whys?' of the story. ”

You've worked on quite a wide range of films. How do you choose a film?

“ It's hard to answer that in a definitive way. Sometimes they come to you and it's a small role, and it's not 'oh this needs to benefit my career..' It's just about the experience and the journey and mixing with people you know you will learn from. Or sometimes it's a scene in a movie that you think 'I just have to play this person..' I don't know, it speaks to you or it doesn't. I don't think about myself as carving out this career you know 'I've done that so now I must do this..' They almost find you and it really has to be about the experience as well. I mean, on this movie I learned so much. I always trust my directors, and for me the relationship between the actor and director is so important and as far as I'm concerned with trust, it's innocent until proven guilty. Both Alejandro and David are both great teachers in their field. ”

Naomi Watts Filmography

The Ring

Ned Kelly